Remember
by Girl Of Hope
Summary: Benny was a stereotypical, he picked on the smart girl in school, Erica. Quickly taking a liking to being with her, he vowed to try and protect her.
1. Without Her

I Can Get By Without Her Help

Benny's POV

'Live your life how you want and not how anyone else wants you to live', those were her famous words that made me wonder about her, made me think that maybe she was right. But now she is gone and I'd never had the chance to say what I needed to, the words 'I love you'. I know that she wouldn't want me to be sad but she meant the world to me, nothing less.

I was hopeless before I met her, getting drunk and arrested from a young age, I was _really_ troubled. But she was like an angel coming down from Heaven to steer me onto the right path. My friends disagreed with what she had said and told me that I was kidding myself and that everything she said was crap.

_No_, she helped me and I could never have thanked her for that. I tried to find every way to thank her but she kept saying in her sweet voice 'No, I really don't you to make it up to me' or 'I live to help people, it is what my destiny, my life's mission, is'. I can't help but smile at the thought, the one I loved, and the person people call 'the One', was so selfless that everyone couldn't help but smile.

Her name was Erica, though she may be gone now she won't ever leave me, even in death she won't because I know I'll see her as an angel, helping people as she loved to do.

I first met her at school, running into her on purpose and making her knock her books onto the floor. She was smart and nice, not that I really cared and I didn't notice it but she was actually really beautiful underneath her glasses and slightly flawed skin. I was a real jerk back then, I would do anything to be the one that guys wanted to be and the one that girls wanted to be with, though I rarely gave anyone, but my friends, a glance in their direction. Except for when I would be mean to a person, and a lot of the time, that person would be Erica.

"You should consider yourself lucky; at least you get to look at me more than most people do." I'd say to her in a mocking tone.

"Why would I want to look at someone who thinks of nothing but themselves?" She said to me, picking up her books in her arms before running off to her one friend, Sarah. We would all laugh as she ran off, as if nothing mattered to us because, at the time, nothing did matter to us.

Nothing mattered to me till one morning during my first class, anyway. I'd had a message come to me to go to the Principal's office at that moment; the teacher even had to walk along with me to make sure I got to the office. From the corner of my eye I saw Erica sitting down at a table, probably getting ready to tutor someone, shaking her head at me. I scoffed and kept walking. When I walked in the door I saw Principal Hicks standing in the doorway to his office. He and I walked in and I took a seat. I'll be honest; he was a very intimidating person when he wanted to be.

"Do you know why you are here?" He said leaning over his desk towards me. Great, he had to start off with that question. I shook my head no. I lied, I knew why I was there, but I was afraid my voice would betray me.

"You are here because of your grades, your attitude and the means to even think of hurting people which you have done many times." I shrank into my seat, I didn't know where he was going with this and I had a feeling that I could do without knowing it. "Your attitude at school calls for you to be expelled but I think you could improve if you had a tutor."

"A what?" I said to her in amazement and shock. I would have rather been expelled than have a tutor to make me feel like an idiot.

"A tutor, someone who helps with schoolwork. Must I be anymore clear than that?" He said, I stayed silent and waited to hear who was going to tutor me and when. "Your tutoring beings immediately. Go find Erica; she is your new tutor." I walked out with my bag slumped over one of my shoulders. I walked along till I found her and sat with, though seemingly far away from, Erica. _Oh great_, I thought; _now I'm getting tutored by the one I try to make miserable every day_.

But the weird thing is that no matter how much I had tried to make her miserable she still smiled at me as I sat down. Erica pulled out a Math textbook and opened it to the start of the chapter we were halfway through in class at the moment.

"The Principal said that you were having trouble with Math the most, right?" I nodded but I didn't speak, I couldn't let Erica know why I kept failing Math. She began to go through everything from the start slowly so I could understand what the rules were and symbols meant, I found it easier to concentrate when someone was actually telling me what the symbols meant and how to apply the rules instead of being yelled at for messing with people during class.

The bell sounded for lunch, I hadn't even realised that our second class bell had gone. Erica packed up her books quickly and rushed off; she knew I couldn't be seen with her. My best friend, aka my teammate on the football team, Ethan came up to me.

"Where were you in Biology? It was the funniest lesson ever." He said as he sat with me and pulled out a piece of cake from his bag. I looked around to make sure no one was listening.

"I had a tutoring with, um, Erica." Ethan's eyes widened in shock but then he began to tap his finger in the table, he looked like he was getting impatient.

"You didn't tell her about, you know?" He said to me in a confidential voice. I shook my head no and he breathed a sigh of relief. Ethan was the only person I could trust with my secrets and he knew not to tell anyone.

"So, what was it like having to spend all of that time with Erica?" Ethan, unfortunately, also knew what made me tick but for some odd reason, his question didn't make me want to throw up at the thought of Erica or curse myself for having to be tutored by her.

"It actually wasn't too bad, I mean, I could concentrate better and I'm starting to get the hang of the problems we're doing in Math." Ethan just nodded and smiled, he knew I was nice and he never made fun of me when I said something nice about someone. Then Sarah walked up to us.

"Um, Benny, Ethan, you two wouldn't have to know where Erica is, do you." She looked at the both of us.

"You have two eyes of your own, why don't you go find her yourself?" I said to Sarah who shrank back a little from the table.

"I think that she would probably be near her locker, you should try there but if she isn't there then have a look at the tables, and she might already be waiting for you at a seat." Ethan said politely to Sarah. Whoa, what happened there? Usually Ethan would have insulted Sarah worse than I would have but instead he decided to help her. Where did that come from? Sarah walked away and I just stared, wide eyed, at Ethan.

"I was just helping her out." Ethan said defensibly before our other teammates, I wouldn't call them friends, exactly, walked over to us. Somehow they had found out about the whole tutoring thing.

"I think we might just go say a quick thank you to Erica for doing this for you, buddy." He looked at the other guys and they nodded to one another. They all left and Ethan just looked at me worriedly.

"Don't worry; they wouldn't do anything to hurt Erica." I said to Ethan trying to convince not only him but myself as well. "They-they wouldn't do anything to hurt her would they?"

"Why would they want to? I mean it's not like they're going to hurt her so you get bad grades and get kicked off the team, right?" Ethan's panicking chuckle turned into a sort of sob, he was so nice to people when he talked to me and vice versa. I stood up at the same time as Ethan and we began to run. We searched all through the school grounds but we found no sign of Erica or even Sarah.

Now we were worried. Ethan suggested we check outside of the school grounds. The both of us ran out the front gate and ran down the street to the nearest alley. Then we saw Sarah. She was bloody and bruised. Ethan ran over to her and picked her up in his arms. He carried her over to me. We lean her against a wall but Ethan didn't leave her side.

"What happened, Sarah?"

"Where's Erica? Where did they take her?"

"I-I don't k-know. They took her somewhere after they beat me up." She sighed and lay down in Ethan's lap. I stood up and ran further down the alley.

There I found Erica, lying motionless on the ground. I ran to her and held her in my arms, trying to wake her up but I found a stab wound in her back. I pulled out my phone and dialled 911 then carried Erica back to Ethan and Sarah. I put her down on the ground and we barely had to wait for the ambulance to come and get Sarah and Erica.

_**A.N. I'm uploading this for the first time in a long time. I did this story ages ago but only got two chapters in so I'm hoping I'll get more inspiration with this. Enjoy, comment and fave. Also, see me if you want me to try and write a story. I'm open to doing that.**_


	2. Hospitalised

Hospitalised

Erica had been rushed to the hospital, luckily for us, that was only a couple of minutes driving. Sarah sat in the ambulance with Erica, while I, panicky and worrying about Erica too much, decided to run to the hospital, though it took around five minutes just to do that and Ethan went on his push bike because his house was down that road. Sarah was out waiting for us just outside of Erica's room; Ethan had only just made it there before me. Sarah had been cleaned up and her bruises and cuts were barely noticeable.

"She's in this room; thought the doctor said it would be best if only one of us goes in at a time. I've already been on there so…" Her voice trailed off as looked from me to Ethan. I nodded to Ethan and he stood up.

"Are you sure? You know, you can go in first." He said to me. I shook my head and turned him around to face the door; he walked in but only stayed in there for a minute or two. He came out with a saddened look on his face. He was obviously upset at seeing the nice Erica being hurt so badly.

"She wants you to go in, Benny. You're the one she wants to see." I never thought I would hear anyone say Erica wanted to see me, especially the way I treated her all of that time. I walked in and saw Erica in her bed, her head facing the door; she smiled at me when I walked in.

"I didn't think you would have actually come in, I didn't think you would have come to the hospital at all." She said to me as she sat up in the bed while I sat down in the chair beside her.

"Why do you think I -?" I cut off in the middle of my sentence with my conscience answering the question for me. _Oh, well, I don't know, maybe it was from the fact that I'd been pushing her around, literally, for who knows how long._

"I am really,_ really_ sorry for everything that I have done to you, you never deserved to be pushed around and ridiculed. I know you probably wouldn't do this, hell, I wouldn't either, but, umm, could maybe give me another chance?" I looked down at my feet and felt tears in my eyes but I felt her hand on my arm.

"So che sei ci dispiace, ma mi danno qualche tempo a perdonarti." (I don't know if that is how you say what she is trying to say but this is what the translator came up with) She said to me. I looked at her confused.

"It means 'I know you're sorry, but give me some time to forgive you' in Italian." I nodded slowly and smiled. Then I noticed what she had said and my smile faded.

"So-some time, but-but why, why can't you forgive me after I was the reason you had got to the hospital in the first place?" I snapped at Erica who then looked at me scared, like I had pushed her to the ground and was standing over her ready to beat her into the ground, sort of like what my teammates probably had done to her just a few hours ago, I think.

"Get out." Erica said simply, not even bothering to look at me anymore.

"W-what? What do you mean?" Then she looked up at my face, with a dark side I hadn't ever seen before.

"Get out of here, Benny!" I had never heard her voice have that tone before, so, as any normal person would do when faced with the crisis of a girl in a hospital bed looking as if she would kill you, I ran out of the room as fast as I could and past Ethan and Sarah, not looking back at either one of them. After running around for about ten minutes I sat down on a park bench and began to think.

_Why is it whenever I try to be nice to Erica I somehow mess it up and she gets all scared, I mean I didn't always want to push her down, mostly my friends made me do that, and I never liked to tease her either, she's actually really nice and, well, beautiful behind the glasses. If only she knew what I am thinking now, maybe everything would be different._

I snapped out of my thoughts when I got a call from Ethan on my phone. I answered to Ethan's panic filled voice.

"Benny, we have got a _huge_ problem. Jesse came in and…"

"Well, what did he do?"

"He took Erica from the hospital. All he did was just lift her up and soar out of the open window; he literally flew out of it with Erica in his arms like she was a doll." I hung up and went back to my house. Ethan and Sarah met me there. Ethan's eyes were wide with shock and Sarah was crying and eating a bag of chips at the same time, she always ate food like that when she got upset, everyone knew that.

"Where do you think Jesse took Erica?" I asked the two of them. They both just shook their heads and I looked down at my feet.

"Maybe we should split up and look around town." Sarah suggested with a mouthful of chips.

"Do you know how long it's going to take to find Erica, especially if Jesse is moving her around." Ethan interjected but not harshly towards Sarah.

"Well, we can't just do nothing, what if she's hurt more than before." I said nearly crying myself. Ethan sighed and Sarah put her hand on my shoulder. The only thing was I didn't know what to do or where Erica was. As I began to think the worst the tears escaped my eyes, I rubbed them away with my sleeve.

"Okay, um, does anyone know where Jesse would have most likely taken Erica?" I said trying to put on as brave a face as I could.

"I know that this seems like a scary suggestion but I'm thinking maybe the cemetery, after all, who would go chasing someone into a cemetery?" Sarah made a lot of sense with her point.

"Okay then, we start there but we should have some other back up places in case she isn't there." Somehow I had a bad feeling we were in for a shock. I drove to the cemetery, which was still just as scary during the day than at night; well it would be creepier at night.

"Erica, Erica! Can you hear me? Erica!" Sarah kept calling out till her voice grew hoarse.

"You should probably save your breath, if she's hurt; she probably wouldn't be able to answer loud enough, or at all." Ethan said, he seemed pretty, I don't know, ticked off. Sarah and I both stared at him with our mouths gaping open.

"Whoa, what's got into you? You seem so, not willing to be here." I said to him and Sarah glared at Ethan.

"What? These kinds of places give me the creeps, okay." He said looking at me and Sarah. Sarah rolled her eyes and I pushed Ethan along. We all kept calling out for Erica and looking everywhere. We then stopped at a huge grey brick building.

"Okay, the cemetery is just as creepy in daylight as night, just saying." Sarah said looking down at her feet and then at us. Ethan slowly reached out and gently pushed on the door, which fell off the hinges and collapsed to the ground with a very loud hollow thud. Sarah jumped when the door fell and Ethan was unfortunately in the way and Sarah had jumped onto his back. The light shone inside of the small dusty room and showed several small graves.

I walked inside after Ethan and Sarah. Sarah had got off of Ethan's back and began to look at all of the graves. She gasped and kneeled down to closer examine of one of the graves.

"Guys, come and see this." Sarah said looking towards Ethan and I. We both knelt down and looked at the gravestone. It read;

_R.I.P._

_Jesse,_

_1732-1749,_

_Dearly missed and loved by all._

And we saw a painting of Jesse in a frame leaning on the grave.

"What the hell?" I said quietly. We all remained silent after that. Well, till someone stepped in the doorway blocking the sunlight pouring in. It was Jesse standing in the doorway, blocking the light.

"Well, well, well, looks like you found something that should have stayed hidden. What are you going to do? Oh, by the way, you can have Erica back, I don't need her anymore." Jesse pulled out Erica from behind the front outside wall of the little tomb. He pushed her down and as she fell I dived down to catch her. I noticed that she was unconscious as I held her in my lap.

"What do you mean you 'don't need her anymore'?" Sarah said looking really mad at Jesse.

"You'll notice later on, trust me, you will." Jesse laughed and walked out leaving us all to look at one another. Erica slowly opened her eyes and groaned a little as she sat up on her own but I still held onto her.

"Oh, my neck, what happened, where are we?" She groaned again as she looked at me. I moved all of the hair from the left side of her neck and we noticed two bite marks on her neck, both of them bleeding. I wiped off the excess blood from her neck, pulled out my phone and asked my grandmother to pick us up and we all then went home.

"What a day!" Erica said to me. She kissed my cheek and thanked me before getting out of my car unsteadily and walking in the front door. I smiled and shook my head.

"Yeah, you are welcome." I said before driving off to my house.

_**A.N. I think I know where I want to go with this but I'm not sure. Suggestions would be nice. I'm loving the reviews, even if it was two, it gives me hope with this story. I need to write the next chapter so it will be longer. I hope you enjoyed this. Comment, fave, follow and love.**_


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